COMPASS - Inkaba

The southern African region is of particular interest in Geomagnetism: The core field is anomalouly weak over the southern Atlantic (South Atlantic Anomaly, SAA) and both field gradients and secular variation are particularly strong there and over southern Africa. However, the density of geomagnetic observatories is very sparse compared to Europe. In order to improve the data coverage for both regional and global secular variation studies SANSA Space Science and GFZ have started a cooperation within the Inkaba yeAfrica project. This involved the establishment of a new geomagnetic observatory in 2006 which is operated jointly now in Keetmanshoop (Namibia) and cooperative repeat station surveys on 40 locations in South Africa, Namibia and Botswana, which will continue over several years.